Forged of Fire

by Stacy Von Haegert

  ****

  With one blinding last thrust Ash forced his fangs from her neck as he pumped his seed into her womb. “Fucking hell!” He ground out as her tight walls continued to milk every last drop of cum from his cock. He shuddered and looked down into her hazy violet eyes. Two drops of blood ran down her throat. Ash leaned down and sealed the flesh with his tongue. He had been too rough. Taken too much of both her body and blood. Had she not climaxed when she did, taking him over the edge with her, he might have drained her dry. She was like a drug and once the high began, Ash was paralyzed to stop it.

  He rolled to his side, taking Kielyn with him, his body unwilling to pull out just yet. She was fire. Never in his life had he been with another Fire-bender and holy hell…Never had been with a virgin.

  “Ash?” Her sleepy voice dragged him from his post sex haze. “The room is spinning.” She giggled.

  Fuck! He had to complete the transformation and quickly. “Kielyn.” He pulled one arm free of the embrace he had her in. “You have to feed from me.” Ash punctured the vein in his wrist and put it to her lips. “Drink.”

  “So demanding.” She rolled her eyes as her head bobbed to the side.

  “Damn it, Kielyn. Now!”

  He moved his free hand up her back and held her head against his wrist. Her hot little tongue darted out and tested the offering. Ash began to grow hard all over again inside her. She inhaled deeply then bit down on his flesh, her tiny human canines not even puncturing the skin but when she began to pull his blood from his body Ash thought he would die from the exquisite torture. No one had ever drank from him and he suddenly understood the appeal. The sensation was akin to the orgasm he had just experienced.

  Kielyn’s hands came up to grab hold of his forearm as she pulled with more force from him. His cock continued to swell until he could no longer take it and he began to fuck her again. Thrusting up into her tight little sex with every drag she took. Her body rocked up and down, grinding down on his shaft as her greedy mouth drank furiously. “Good. God. Kitten…” Ash groaned as his hips began to drive harder and faster into her, impaling her with each thrust. Kielyn’s body began to convulse around him as her ruby red lips broke free on a gasp and her head rolled back. Once again, she took him right along with her and he filled her completely, his hot release surrounding his cock before running down his thigh as he continued to piston into her.

  Ash’s body sank into the mattress when Kielyn’s long legs began to relax from the vise like grip they held around his waist. Her arms still clung tightly to his neck though her hammering heartbeat was beginning to slow. After a few minutes Ash reluctantly pulled out of her embrace and pushed to the edge of her bed. He needed to get her cleaned up and fed real food.

  He stood and walked naked to the windows, pulling them all closed. With the flick of a switch on the far side of the room, the blackout blinds began to lower. Kielyn would no doubt sleep through the entire next day. “Wait!” Her sated voice said from the middle of the big bed. “Don’t close them yet.” Ash stopped their descent and looked over to where she laid, her gaze locked on the skyline. “That violet mixing with the cobalt blue color on the horizon,” she said. “I want to see it one last time. I want to remember what the day looked like when it gave way to the night.”

  Ash walked towards her. “Only for a short time. I will teach you to walk in the light just as I am able.” He sat down. “When you are strong enough.”

  “When will that be?” She started to sit up.

  “Oh no, little one.” Ash reached over and stopped her, gently laying her back against the feather bed. “You are going to be very weak and no doubt very sore.” He shook his head, ashamed of his own lack of control. He should have known better. He had made a plan. A very good plan that entailed turning her properly, then later bedding her. Instead he had lost all control and taken her like a savage. A virgin no less! “Kielyn, why did you not tell me?”

  “When? We have not had much time alone since our shotgun wedding…” She paused and looked away. “Are you disappointed? I am sure you have been with much more experienced lovers. I can try and learn…”

  He reached out and took her cheek in his palm, turning it towards him. “Don’t.” Ash leaned in and kissed her softly. “I am honored that I was your first, your only and your last.” He sat back up. “As far as trying to learn better how to pleasure me,” He chuckled as he rose, grabbing his discarded jeans. “I would dare say you are a natural. Consider me well pleased.” Stepping in the denim and pulling them up Ash caught her eyes following along with the material as he tucked himself in. His cock twitched. She would be his utter undoing! “I am going to draw you a bath and get you cleaned up, nourished and tucked away to rest.”

  “Will you stay with me?” She asked.

  “Yes. I am not going anywhere except into that bathroom to start your bath.” He motioned with his eyes. “Promise me you won’t move a muscle?” She nodded, a small grin playing across her beautiful face.

  After running the water and adding drops of rose oil Ash returned to the bedroom. Kielyn smiled up to him but it was a faint smile. She was fading quickly. He carefully scooped her into his arms and carried her into the other room. He lowered her into the warm water and hit two buttons on the wall. “What are those for?” She asked.

  “The maid and the cook.” Ash walked back over and grabbed the sponge from a tray, dipping it into the water. “You will have fresh sheets and food when we are done in here.”

  “Oh!” She blushed.

  Ash lifted the heavy sponge and placed it on her shoulder. “We are married, there is nothing to be embarrassed of, kitten.” He trailed the soft loofa down her arm before pushing her thick wavy hair to the side and scrubbing her back. “Lean back.” He placed his hand under her neck, supporting it as his other lifted a pitcher of water and poured it over her long red hair. “There are three buttons in every room. One for the kitchen, press it and whatever you desire will be brought to you. The second is for the maid, push it and someone will arrive to attend to your room and the third is for Hamilton.” He poured shampoo onto his hands and began to work it into a lather. “Although, I suppose additional staff will be needed now that I am acquiring a compound.” He ran his hands through her hair, working the suds into the thick locks.

  “I am sorry about that, by the way.” She closed her eyes as Ash began to pour fresh water over her hair. He could feel the weight of her muscles relaxing into his hold as her body succumbed to the water’s liquid spell. “I know this must be difficult for you.” She yawned. “First, saddled with me, being a King and all.”

  Ash lowered the pitcher. She had it all wrong. He was the stubborn ass that made it all wrong. If he was being honest, his eyes scanned Kielyn’s perfect body, Ash wanted her from the first moment he laid eyes on her. The very first night he knew she was his. Having just made love to her, the way her body fit and welcomed his, proved even more that she was meant for him and him alone. She was smart, funny, beautiful and his! “Kielyn…” He needed her to know. He needed to tell her of his folly. How badly he had messed up and he planned on being more than just a mate on paper to her. She deserved so much more. “Kielyn?”

  Her head rolled to the side. Sound asleep. Ash smiled. She was so brave. So strong in her trusting of him. He would fix this Ash mentally vowed. As soon as she woke, he would make sure she understood how much he valued her. She was his…

  ****

  The tray collided with the opposite wall so hard a hanging portrait fell, glass flying across the floor to lay beside broken porcelain and silverware. “That’s my fucking right!” Zander bellowed from his bed. His father did not move a muscle from where he stood, back to Zander in the doorway, mere inches from where the serving tray now rested. “I found her! It’s my right to have her!”

  A vein in Dante’s neck bulged and his knuckles whitened as he drew in a fist at his side. He turned. “Your right?” He stalked back towards the bed. “You? Who nearly got himse
lf killed?” He spit. “You, that found her and more importantly, Ashdon! And, did not bring them to me?” His eyes narrowed into razor thin slits.

  Zander felt his courage depleting as quickly as it had risen when his father had told him that Katara would be awarded the girl, once she was found. Like fucking hell! The redheaded temptress was his! Zander had done nothing but dream about all the fun ways he would fuck her into submission during his comatose state. It was the first words out of his mouth when he began to come to. I want the chosen one! Zander tried to push further up in his bed but the unbearable stabbing sensation in his ribs and legs halted that notion. He winced and tried to see through the onslaught of blurring pain. “I could have taken him alone. I just missed sensing the Angel,” he looked to his night stand for the pill bottle.

  Dante snatched it up before Zander could reach for it. “These are making you stupid! No more of them!”

  Zander stared at him in disbelief. “I almost died! My flesh is not even entirely back on my body and my bones have yet to completely mend!”

  “Yet you have enough strength to hurl a serving tray at me.” His father tossed the pills to a servant that had just rushed in to tend to the mess. “I suggest you find a way to comfort your aching body with that unwarranted ego of yours.”

  This was going from bad to worse Zander thought as his brain scrambled to find a loophole out of his father’s wrath. He had been given a taste of the redhead and he wanted more. Even more importantly, he would be damned if his father gave her to his sister. “I will get you Ash.”

  Dante pinned him to the headboard with his icy stare. “You think to persuade me by reminding me of your failures!” The rise in his voice sent the servant scurrying out of the room. “Even without the Angel assist, you could not have taken him on alone.” His father leaned down so that he was nose to nose with him. “Ashdon LaGoryen is stronger than you will ever be! He is your better in every way!”

  Zander felt the words as if they had been a knife skinning muscle from bone. Finally, the truth. His father really did place Ash above all others. Dante was not punishing Zander for failing to get the chosen one. He was punishing him for not getting the coveted one, Ash. The stark admittance fueled to life a past of jealousy, anger and hurt. Zander was fucking done trying to please. Done trying to prove himself to a father that would never care anyway. “He never had a weakness before.” He said. “Now he does.”

  “What weakness?” Dante ground out. “If these words you speak or this web you are spinning, is just another futile attempt to redeem yourself… I will kill you myself!”

  “Wow! You really do have a hard on for that fucking Fire-bending Vamp!” Zander bit out, a whole second before the blood and teeth spewed from his mouth. His vision went black from the force of the hit as the taste of copper filled his mouth. He blindly spat it out before it could choke him. Slowly the fog of his vision began to lift and he craned his neck back to look at his father. Fuck you! He should hold his tongue, but Zander now craved a physical pain to replace the mental one his father had just delivered.

  “I mean, I get it. Who would not be attracted to that sort of strength?” Zander looked his father straight in the eye. “If my dick swung that way I would probably be in love with him myself.” The next punch wrenched his head to the left, slamming it backwards into the headboard. More blood filled his mouth. Bring it! Fucking kill me! Zander coughed it out over the edge of his bed and lifted his hand to wipe his lips.

  “Are you done or do you wish for more?” Dante growled. “What is his weakness?”

  Zander shifted his eyes back to his father. “He mated the girl.”

  “How do you know this?”

  “I cannot access her dreams anymore.” Zander confessed gladly. “I had been able to penetrate them but they have been blocked to me and the only thing that could do that is…”

  “If she took a Vampire mate.” Dante finished for him. “Fuck!” He paced to the end of the bed. “How do you know it’s Ashdon?”

  Zander resisted the urge to smile at his father’s displeasure. It was irony at its very best. Dante had wanted to possess only one being for Zander’s whole life and he couldn’t. Ashdon LaGoryen hated his father. Loathed him! Zander’s father, the fucking Devil himself was undone, all his power cast aside. All this damage done by what other than a mere mortal female. Time to deliver the killing blow. “The only image I can see when I try to access her mind is the crest of the Dragon. The house of Ushum.”

  Dante froze in place, his eyes growing wide before he averted them. “I see.”

  I bet you do see now you sick fuck! Zander wanted to kiss the hand of fate. There was nothing much to taking a mate for their kind. If they were not an Original all you had to do was turn them and fuck them. But, something very unique happened if the joining was “Fated”, meaning there was more involved than merely affection, lust or even love. If a mating was fated, both parties were connected by the dominant family crest which could be seen in their auras. Forever sealed, like a tattoo, it could not be stripped or unbroken.

  All these centuries. All this time Zander had lived in the shadows. The shadows cast by a damned boy that had intruded on Zander’s life so many years ago. The only being his father ever loved. All this time Zander had taken a back seat to Ashdon LaGoryen. All for nothing. Or was it…Seemed the scales had finally tipped. Zander would now see his father suffer the way he had. Not being able to obtain the one thing he desired most in all the world.

  Zander smiled. “Guess the party is over, huh?” A chuckle broke free of his busted lips. “You will never get you precious toy back. That must really suck!”

  Dante did not react, instead he simply turned and walked to the door of Zander’s room. He paused at the entrance and called down the hall to a servant. Rushing footsteps were heard and then a male appeared at the door. “Get Rozo and tell him to announce a tournament to be held in two weeks’ time.” Dante looked back to Zander, his eyes void of emotion. “I expect to be hosting a special guest by that time and I want him to attend the activities.”

  “Yes, your Highness.” The servant nodded and bowed. “Would you like me to include what sort of tournament and where it will be located?”

  “Yes. It will be held in the arena. A fight to the death. To honor my…Very. Special. Guest.”His father continued to stare at Zander. “The two fighters will be… My very own daughter and my son.”

  ****

  “It’s a gift, either you have it or you do not but trust me, it’s clear.” Stefen said.

  “So you are telling me this crest,” Ash held up the pencil drawing the Angel sketched out. “Is visible around my aura?”

  Stefen rolled his head along the back of the chair, clearly annoyed that he needed to explain it again. “Yes.”

  “And this was not visible to you prior to me turning Kielyn?”

  “Correct.” Stefen answered. “Again, it only shows up when a couple is fated to be together. The universe’s way of performing its own ceremony of sorts.” He rolled his wrist. “Destiny and shit you don’t believe in.”

  He leaned back in his chair. Ash felt he had a strong connection to Kielyn but Stefen was right, he never believed in destiny. Words like fate and destiny were for romantics. The wordy poets that had enough free time on their hands to daydream about their futures. Ash was always more of a Shakespearian fan, everyone dies, the end. “Are you sure?”

  Stefen rested his forehead in his palm. “I need another drink. Talking to you is akin to chatting with a wall," he lowered his hand. “Yes, I’m sure. I am not here for my own amusement and if you hadn’t noticed, Angels in general, do not lie. Code of ethics, bla, bla, bla and whatnot.” Stefen sat forward and picked up the drawing. “This, your family crest of the dragon is what I see intertwined in your aura. If you would let me in to see Kielyn I would see the same symbol on her aura too.”

  “When she wakes.” Ash said.

  “Can we at least transfer parlors?” The Angel motioned
around the room with a wave of his arm. “This feminine stuff is giving me a headache. I had no idea you were so traditional. Still keeping with the old school customs of keeping separate bedrooms and sitting parlors.”

  “I want to be close when she wakes.” Ash repeated for the second time in the last hour. Kielyn had been asleep for two days now. Only waking to feed from Ash when he woke her. He had stayed in her room and only ventured out periodically to update the annoying and overly concerned Angel.

  “Your updated rooms are just across the hall…” Stefen made to argue but Ash halted his complaint with a hand. “Fine,” the Angel consented. “But you really do need a decorator in here and at least a television. It’s as if this room has not been used in a couple hundred years.”

  “It has not been used since I acquired it. The furniture came with it as well as the wallpaper and curtains which I will agree, is atrocious. This room has been cleaned regularly, but it’s the only room in the castle that has not been modernized,” Ash said. “There was never a need before and I barely gave the staff time to update her bedroom.”